The calendar may have said April 7, but state Rep. Cecelie Williams celebrated her “Independence Day” when Gov. Mike Kehoe signed legislation she sponsored into law, clarifying that a woman’s pregnancy status should not be used to prevent courts from granting divorce or legal separation.
HB 1908, sponsored by Williams, R-Dittmer, and Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, and Sen. Jill Carter, R-Granby, modified provisions relating to the dissolution of marriage or legal separation and pregnancy status.
“If we are serious about protecting life, we must also be serious about protecting vulnerable women and mothers,” Kehoe said at the signing. “House Bill 1908 ensures that pregnancy is never used as a barrier to prevent a woman from seeking a divorce in unsafe situations. I appreciate Rep. Williams for her leadership and courage in sharing her story, and thank the General Assembly for its unanimous support of this important legislation.”
Williams is a first-term representative and a survivor of domestic violence. She introduced the bill last year, but it died on the Senate floor due to a last-minute amendment attachment.
The bill quickly advanced this year and unanimously passed in both the House and the Senate.
Williams shared her story in the House and Senate, explaining how she was pregnant with her fourth child in 2005 when she decided to leave her abuser – only to be told pregnant women could not divorce in Missouri.
“I always stated that the day that this law goes into effect or we have made a change would be my personal Independence Day,” she said moments before Kehoe signed the bill into law. “I never actually received a divorce from my husband as he had taken his life 11 days before our divorce was to be finalized. I never got to experience his face when I was able to tell him how much his actions affected me … That day was taken from me, and my voice was silenced yet again by him. So today, this being my Independence Day, is just something that is absolutely incredible. I’ve looked forward to it since the day I decided to run for office.”
Williams said this bill has been her first priority because she wanted to be a voice “for those who also were silenced by domestic violence.”
“I was silenced by domestic violence, and so I speak now for those who still are (in an abusive relationship),” she said.
Before signing the bill, Kehoe recalled how Williams shared her story with him the first time they met. He said when he left her office, he almost cried because his own mother had an abusive relationship with his father before he was born.
“It hit home with me,” he said.
Williams has said she believes the bill was beneficial for men and women.
She said when a married woman has a baby, her husband’s name goes on the birth certificate, and he has to fight to get his name off if the baby is not his.
“This bill protects men from being lawfully and financially responsible for a child they didn’t create while in a marriage with their wife,” Williams said before the House vote. “This bill protects unborn children, but most importantly, in my case, this bill will protect the lives of women and children who have been subjected to abuse. It is about offering survivors like me the chance to find safety to begin healing, and to reclaim the life that was stolen from them.”
She said no woman should ever be forced to stay in a dangerous, abusive marriage because the law keeps her legally bound to a man who does not care for her wellbeing.
“The number one cause of death in pregnant women is homicide, and it’s from partner violence,” Williams told the Senate Families, Seniors and Health Committee on March 9. “If we could prevent that by allowing women to leave when they want, we absolutely shouldn’t be creating barriers in situations like that.
“I look at this as pro-life legislation, as well, because if I would have chosen that day to go and have an abortion, I could have come back hours later and filed for divorce. Where in anything that we stand for as Missourians would we ever allow a woman to have to make that decision to save herself and to sacrifice her child. That’s something I could never imagine but definitely something we shouldn’t put on someone to have to make that decision.”
The governor signed two other bills into law that day:
SB 888, sponsored by Sen. Nick Schroer and Rep. Brad Christ, modifies provisions relating to the criminal systems.
HB 2273, sponsored by Rep. Ed Lewis and Carter, modifies and establishes provisions relating to the protection of children and vulnerable persons.